Probably yes. But it's worth thinking over.
On Friday I went to the revival of the great American musical Gypsy, starring Patti Lupone, at New York's City Center Theater. As every critic (with the mysterious exception of the New York Times' Ben Brantley) will attest, it is astonishing. When Patti Lupone strides on to stage, she's greeted like a Liberator come to unshackle audiences from the tyranny of crappy musicals. (I realize that many readers took exception to my rave for Knocked Up. But please, believe me this time.)
Gypsy is based on the true story of "Mama Rose" Hovick, the prototype of the pushy stage mother - a thrice-married bulldozer of a woman who carts her two daughters, June and Louise, all over the dying vaudeville circuit during the 1920s and 30s, in the hopes of making June a star. (In this production June is portrayed brilliantly and eerily as a Jon-Benet Ramsay type.) Significantly Rose's own mother had abandoned her as a child. This may help explain why Rose pushes and smothers June ... until June runs away, leaving the blander Louise the object of her mother's monomania. Louise, second fiddle up till, takes whatever attention she can get from her mother; that's how hungry she is for anything approaching affection.
In the musical Rose is courted by the act's kindly, if weak, manager Herbie. All he wants is to marry Rose and make her happy. But Rose is obsessed; she must make a star out of one of her daughters. Even after June runs off, Rose pushes Herbie (her only shot at domestic stability) away, and eventually the otherwise talentless Louise becomes a stripper, the real-life Gypsy Rose Lee - horrifically enough, with the mother's acquiescence!
On Friday I went to the revival of the great American musical Gypsy, starring Patti Lupone, at New York's City Center Theater. As every critic (with the mysterious exception of the New York Times' Ben Brantley) will attest, it is astonishing. When Patti Lupone strides on to stage, she's greeted like a Liberator come to unshackle audiences from the tyranny of crappy musicals. (I realize that many readers took exception to my rave for Knocked Up. But please, believe me this time.)
Gypsy is based on the true story of "Mama Rose" Hovick, the prototype of the pushy stage mother - a thrice-married bulldozer of a woman who carts her two daughters, June and Louise, all over the dying vaudeville circuit during the 1920s and 30s, in the hopes of making June a star. (In this production June is portrayed brilliantly and eerily as a Jon-Benet Ramsay type.) Significantly Rose's own mother had abandoned her as a child. This may help explain why Rose pushes and smothers June ... until June runs away, leaving the blander Louise the object of her mother's monomania. Louise, second fiddle up till, takes whatever attention she can get from her mother; that's how hungry she is for anything approaching affection.
In the musical Rose is courted by the act's kindly, if weak, manager Herbie. All he wants is to marry Rose and make her happy. But Rose is obsessed; she must make a star out of one of her daughters. Even after June runs off, Rose pushes Herbie (her only shot at domestic stability) away, and eventually the otherwise talentless Louise becomes a stripper, the real-life Gypsy Rose Lee - horrifically enough, with the mother's acquiescence!
